Should Gun Makers Face Lawsuits After Mass Shootings?

In this Jan. 28, 2013, file photo, firearms training unit Detective Barbara J. Mattson, of the Connecticut State Police, holds up a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, the same make and model of gun used by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook School shooting. (Jessica Hill/AP File)

Listen

Listening...

/

On the heels of the Las Vegas and Texas massacres, Newtown families want gun makers held liable. They’re in court again. Could this be the way?

This hour will air Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST.

A big gun case opening in Connecticut today. Families of the victims of the Newtown elementary school shooting going to court again to try to hold the maker of the assault-style rifle used by Adam Lanza on that terrible day liable for those deaths. Twenty-six people – mostly children – died. Remington is now a target. Federal law protects gun makers. It’s a tough case. But after Newtown and Orlando and Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, we’re watching. This hour, On Point: liability and guns. —Tom Ashbrook

From Tom’s Reading List:

New York Times: Why Christians Must Support Gun Control — “I won’t pretend to be more religious than the next person, nor am I afraid to call myself a Christian. Like a lot of Americans, I have a complicated relationship with my faith. But that shouldn’t lessen our sense of moral obligation in the face of what some blithely call the new normal. Nor should we fall for the siren call of more guns, the unproven good-guy-with-a-gun myth, something many of my fellow Texans have indulged in over the past few days. Instead, we have a duty to confront these machines and the profiteering behind them.”

Stanford University: Violent Crime Increases In Right-To-Carry States — “Examining decades of crime data, Stanford Law Professor John Donohue’s analysis shows that violent crime in RTC states was estimated to be 13 to 15 percent higher – over a period of 10 years – than it would have been had the state not adopted the law.”